


Second Best

by Silent_So_Long



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Comment Fic, Community: jim_and_bones, First Kiss, Kissing, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-02
Updated: 2011-11-02
Packaged: 2017-10-25 15:26:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silent_So_Long/pseuds/Silent_So_Long
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Jim pines for no reason.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Best

**Author's Note:**

> Written as comment-fic in response to [today’s gorgeous Daily Captain/Daily Doctor pictures](http://jim-and-bones.livejournal.com/509378.html) on jim_and_bones. Comm is f-locked - must be 18 or over to join and view the pretty!

Jim sat alone at the bar, surrounded by swirling sounds of music and constant excited, occasionally drunken, conversation. He nursed his third Altairian brandy of the evening, no small feat considering he’d been stationed at the bar for near on an hour. He turned slightly at the sound of loud, throaty laughter cutting through the air, feminine and distinctly flirtatious. He caught sight of Leonard nearby, the doctor’s tall frame crowding close to a female patron of the bar, grin spread broadly across Leonard’s handsome face. Jim gritted his teeth, annoyed at the sight of dimples flashing in the light, dimples and grin that should have been reserved for him, instead of some random woman in a bar.

Jim turned away before Leonard could sense that the captain was watching, not wanting the other man to see his stormily angry look, nor come over to question him about it. He balled his fist instead, fingernails cutting awkwardly in sharp stabbing pains into his palm to counteract the anger simmering inside him. His knuckles bled white from where he clenched his fist too harshly, yet he didn’t care. He could deal with the pain, yet he couldn’t deal with the jealous anger residing within him.

“You should go talk to him, you know,” said a soft voice beside him.

“What?” Jim barked out harshly, turning around to glare at Uhura angrily.

It had been at Uhura’s behest that they even attend the bar in the first place, wanting to spend her birthday somewhere other than in the environs of the Enterprise. Jim couldn’t blame her, however, for the fact that Leonard had succeeded in being picked up by an attractive female when Jim, himself, hadn’t. Jim didn’t care about that; after all, he’d had his fair share of one night stands and random bar hook-ups throughout what passed for his adult life so far. It was Leonard Jim wanted, Leonard that should be grinning at him, directing those huge dimples at the captain that Jim rarely saw while the doctor was working.

“Talk to McCoy,” Uhura insisted, unperturbed. “No good you staring at him like a kicked puppy if you don’t do anything about it.”

“Am not staring,” Jim muttered, turning away to order another brandy, despite the fact that he hadn’t quite finished his current one.

“Are too,” Uhura responded, in just as childish a manner as Jim’s prior statement. “I insist. Give me a birthday present and go talk to him. Anyone with half an eye can see you’re pining.”

Jim gritted his teeth, yet said nothing.

“Go on, for me,” Uhura urged, giving Jim a shove upon the shoulder, which turned out to be far heftier than her slender frame would have led Jim to believe possible.

“No,” Jim said, firmly. “He doesn’t want me, otherwise he wouldn’t be talking to that woman.”

“Ever think he might be talking to that woman, because he thinks he can’t have you?” Uhura asked, with one artfully raised eyebrow. “I swear you’ve been circling each other like horny wolves for months and neither of you know how the other feels.”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better. I’m not drunk enough for reassurances,” Jim told her, with an agonised snort. “Bones doesn’t want me.”

“Don't you dare say he’s too good for you,” Uhura cut in before Jim could speak further. “I’m calling him over.”

“No, don’t you - “ Jim started, yet he was too late.

Uhura was screaming at the top of her considerable lungs for Leonard to come over, and to Jim’s surprise, Leonard willingly left the woman he’d been talking to with an expression of abstract relief upon his face. Even though his grin was still in place, dimples a pleasant curve in his cheeks, the smile had diminished a little, grown weary as though Leonard had been drained by feminine contact.

“Dammit, Uhura, do you have to scream like a harpy? I’m a doctor, not deaf,” Leonard said, when he reached the diminutive form of Uhura, a smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Uhura gave him her sweetest smile and pointed to Jim, who was pointedly trying to ignore the exchange taking place right beside him.

“Talk to him, would you? He’s pining,” Uhura said, grin brightening her face even as she walked away.

Jim swore beneath his breath and tried not to look up when Leonard settled down beside him. The doctor ordered two shots of bourbon and slid one across to Jim when the glasses arrived. Jim grunted out a thanks and was surprised when Leonard didn’t immediately press the issue that Uhura had presented before him. The doctor remained silent, non-judgemental, waiting for Jim to speak first. Jim eventually broke.

“So, you got lucky, huh?” he asked, as he pointed to the woman who was, even now, still staring lustfully at Leonard’s back.

Leonard frowned and shook his head.

“Not interested, kid,” he said, losing his smile immediately. “Too old for jail-bait.”

Jim laughed at that, but still said - “You were giving off a good impression of being interested in her, just now.”

Leonard grunted yet said nothing, straight away. Then he opened his mouth and said - “Sometimes, a man just has to take second best.”

Jim grunted but said nothing, staring at the bottom of his glass through the warm amber layer of bourbon. Then he spoke.

“I know how that goes,” he murmured, sadly. “Most of the time, I feel like second best is all I have to go on.”

Leonard grunted, but waited patiently for Jim to continue. Jim didn’t; instead he turned to stare over his shoulder, feeling Uhura’s eyes drilling into his back. The communications officer’s eyes were narrowed into a cat’s glare at Jim, urging silently for the captain to do something, preferably by yesterday considering the intensity of her glare. Leonard turned also, attracted by Jim’s shift in perception, also catching Uhura’s expression before the look could disappear.

“What’s up with Uhura?” Leonard asked, with a frown at Jim.

At first, Jim didn’t answer and at Leonard’s protracted glare and continued silence, he finally broke.

“She’s got this insane notion into her head that I’m pining after you,” Jim admitted, an embarrassed tilt to his mouth and head.

“And are you?” Leonard asked, directly, a surprised grin decorating his face.

“Don’t ask me that,” Jim replied, wearily.

“Dammit, Jim, why not?” Leonard asked. “I think there’s something in what Uhura said. I’m a doctor not an imbecile, you know. You’ve been acting like an uptight ass-hole for weeks. In actual fact, you’ve been acting like Spock.”

“That hurts, Bones,” Jim said, placing one hand over his heart in a mock display of anguish.

Leonard grunted but wouldn’t give up the chase now.

“You wanna tell me what the devil is going on or am I gonna have to beat it out of you?” Leonard growled. “I have a hypospray with your name on it, kid.”

Jim stared at him for a moment, uncertain as to what to even do or say to the other man. Then Leonard swore to himself and leant in, claiming Jim’s mouth hungrily with his own. At first, Jim was too shocked to even react and it was when Leonard was drawing away, discouraged, that Jim pulled him back, mouth locking tightly against the doctor’s. Jim kissed him then, trying to convey everything he’d been feeling for weeks, for months, pent-up emotions that had found no previous outlet until now. Cat-calls came from around them, as various members of the Enterprise crew cheered the kissing couple on. Jim wondered if the woman who’d been flirting with Leonard had flounced off yet and found that he didn’t care. All he cared about, all he wanted was Leonard, and Leonard’s continued kisses.

Leonard finally drew away, looking stunned, tongue lapping out over those impossibly soft lips, before he grinned in the same way he’d been grinning at the woman before. His dimples had returned, a warm light was suffusing his gaze and Jim’s heart stuttered a little. That was the look he’d been aching to see for weeks, that expression of admiration and mutual lust that Jim had thought would go unmet.

“So that’s what this was all about,” Leonard mused, grin still in place. “You really were pining after me. Well, I’ll be damned.”

“Shut it, McCoy, and just kiss me, already,” Jim demanded, pulling the doctor closer into his own personal space again.

Leonard did, mouths meeting and parting in ever more exploratory kisses. When Jim drew away, dazed, it was to see that Leonard was still directing that killer dimpled smile upon him.

“Guess I don’t have to take second best anymore, do I, kid?” Leonard asked, voice a little gruff around the edges.

“I guess neither of us do,” Jim said, diplomatically, as he smiled back at Leonard.


End file.
